Tituba
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Tituba was the first woman accused of being a witch during the Salem witch trials of 1692 that took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts.
In the late seventeenth century Tituba lived on the island of Barbados as a slave[1]. While Tituba lived on the island she was bought by a man named Samuel Parris to care for his home. Sometime during the 1680’s Samuel Parris moved his family and his slave Tituba to Boston, Massachusetts. In 1689 Samuel Parris became Minister of Salem Village and began to preach in the Village.
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[edit] Tituba’s involvement in the Salem witch trials
Tituba was the first person accused of being a witch in Salem Village which eventually led to several others (men and women) in Salem and the surrounding areas to be accused of witchcraft[2]. Tituba was accused by 9 year old Betty Parris who was Minister Samuel Parris’s daughter and her 11 year old cousin Abigail Williams who also lived in the Parris home. The two girls claimed to be bitten and pinched while they slept. The girls also begin to succumb to fits which were originally believed to be epilepsy but were found not to be, seizures, and comatose trances. The girls would eventually blame Tituba for their symptoms claiming that they felt Tituba in their dreams pinching, and biting them. The girls also stated that Tituba would whisper in their ears during their dreams and that was the cause of their fits and trances[3]. Throughout Salem village, there were rumours that Tituba was practiser of witchcraft, and that she taught the young girls in the Parris home how to read palms. Rumours that Tituba read the girls stories at night about magic from Barbados where Obeah was part of the everyday culture also surfaced. Due to the gossip throughout the village that Tituba knew witchcraft the Parris’s neighbour Mary Sibley asked Tituba to bake a witch cake to feed to a dog to find out who was bewitching the two girls. Tituba agreed to bake the witch cake. Minister Parris found out about Tituba’s attempt to use witchcraft in the baking of the witch cake and punished Tituba. Tituba apologized for practicing in witchcraft since it was illegal in the village and believed to be evil. Tituba was formally accused of bewitching the two girls after the girls accusation and the discovery of the Witch cake. Tituba denied that she cast a spell on the two Parris family members and said that she only knew a little witchcraft due to her upbringing on the island of Barbados. However, later on Tituba did confess to being a witch and that she was the one who was afflicting the Parris girls. Tituba also stated that she was not the only witch in the village. Tituba named other witches in the village who were her accomplices. Tituba named Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne as her accomplices. Tituba was jailed after being accused and arrested for afflicting the Parris girls. Tituba remained in custody for the duration of the Salem witch trials. After the witch trials ended Minister Parris did not pay the fee to release Tituba from prison so she was bought by an unknown individual for seven pounds who relocated with Tituba to another town.
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[edit] Historical Importance of Tituba
Tituba was the first person accused of witchcraft in Salem Village. The effects of the Tituba accusation and her confession allowed the Salem witchcraft trials to take place. If Tituba had not confessed to being a witch and afflicting the Parris girls, then there may never have been a witchcraft trial in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. With Tituba’s confession she allowed Salem Village to play out all of the anger, fustration, and hysteria that it held pent up within its society.
[edit] Historical Debate over Tituba
The physical description of Tituba from the first time she was studied by a historian to the present study of her life has had controversy surrounding it. The argument of Tituba’s ancestry has gained more and more attention day by day. In the beginning of the scholarly study of Tituba it was considered to be an assumed fact that Tituba was of Indian descent[4]. But over time the origins of Tituba have begun to be re-evaulueated and old theories have been contested. One scholar who disagrees with the old theory that Tituba was Indian is Maryse Conde[5]. Condé tells the story of Tituba from a narrative and fictional point of view. Conde describes Tituba as being a African slave whose mother was raped on her passage over from Africa and then had Tituba after she arrives in Barbados. This account of Tituba’s origins does not claim to rely on facts for all of its evidence, but since there is no way to conclude, with certainty, where Tituba was from today's evidence Conde feels that she could be correct in her assumptions. In Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem Elaine G.Breslaw, writes
according to local legend, Tituba and her husband, John, “were spoken of as having come from New Spain…that is, the Spanish West Indies, and the adjacent mainland,” is borne out by the record of known slave-capturing activities in South America.
Breslaw believes that Tituba was an Arawak Indian from Guiana who was either kidnapped or then brought to Barbados or her tribe had migrated there though South America. While Breslaw relies more on factual evidence then Conde her argument can not be considered any more reliable due to no clear evidence that disputes either theory. The debate over whether Tituba was of Indian ethnicity or of African ancestry can not be resolved today with the evidence availably today. One scholar who tries to explain why the debate cannot be resolved is Veta Smith Ticker[6]. Smith writes
17th-century Puritans blended the categories Indian, African, and slave…In seventeenth century Massachusetts, such discriminations among unregenerate peoples of color were considered unnecessary, especially for slaves. By 1692 Columbus misnamein had yielded a catchall term…applied to the Guanahani, the Caribbe, the Aztecs, and West Indies Arficans…
This passage from the Ticker article sets the background on how the debate over the ethnicity of Tituba’s origins can still be going today. Since there was no clear distinction by the Puritans on the racial differences between Indians, Africans, and slaves it remains hard to truly identify Tituba’s origin. This how ever is not the only reason for the scholarly debate over the identity of Tituba. Another reason is covered by Chadwick Hansen. In Hansen's article the issue of the racial identity of witches during Puritan times is addressed. Hansen states [7]
Over the years the magic Tituba practiced has been changed by historians and dramatists from English, to India, to African. More startlingly, her own race has been changed from Indian, to half-Indian and half-Negro, to Negro…There is no evidence to support these changes, but there is an instructive lesson in American historiography to be read in them.
Hansen explains that due to further research into Tituba’s origins that American historians feel more comfortably with labeling Tituba a practicer of Indian, or African magic as long as it is not connected to any form of European magic. These sources show why the historical debate over Tituba’s beginning are just as relevant as the part that Tituba played in the Salem witch trials.
[edit] References
- ^ Ann Petry, "Tituba of Salem Village." (New York: Ftzhenry and Whiteside imited, 1964)
- ^ Mary Beth Norton, "In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft crisis of 1692." (New York: Alfred K. Knopf, 2002)
- ^ Lori Lee Wilson, "The Salem witch trials:How History is invented." (Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 1997)
- ^ Elaine G. Breslaw, "Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies." (New York: New York University Press, 1996)
- ^ Maryse Conde, "I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem 1992." (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994)
- ^ Veta Smith Ticker,"Purloined Identity: The Racial metamorphosis of Tituba of Salem Village." Journal of Black Studies (March 2000) 624-634.
- ^ Chadwick Hansen, " The Metamorphosis of Tituba, or Whey American Intellectuals Can’t Tell an Indian Witch from a Negro." The New England Quarterly 47 (March 1974) 3-12.
[edit] Fiction
Tituba is the protagonist of the novel I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem (1982) by Maryse Condé*, she also featured prominently in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The image of Tituba as the instigator of witchcraft at Salem fed into the popular mindset by the opening scene of The Crucible, which owes much to Marion Starkey’s work "The Devil in Massachusetts" (1949). In the play, Tituba was brought to Salem from Barbados, was told to know how to conjure up spirits, and had allegedly dabbled in sorcery, witchcraft, and Satanism. These fictional accounts hold that Abigail Williams and the other girls tried to use her knowledge when dancing in the woods before the trials began; it was, in fact, their being caught that preceded those events. With the original intention of covering up their own sinful deeds, Tituba was the one to be accused by Abigail, who had in fact drank from a magic cup Tituba made, to kill John Proctor's wife Elizabeth and to bewitch him into loving her. She and the other girls claimed to have seen Tituba "with the Devil."
It is ironic that the belief that Tituba led these girls astray has persisted in popular lore, fiction and non fiction alike. The charge, which is seen by some as having barely disguised racial undertones, is based on the imagination of authors like Starkey, who eerily mirrors Salem’s accusers when she asserts that "I have invented the scenes with Tituba .... but they are what I really believe happened."
Tituba is also the main character in the book "Tituba of Salem Village" by Ann Petry.
- Though it should be noted that according to I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem, Tituba was born in Barbados as the result of an English sailor raping her mother, Abena (who had "jet black skin", which is evidence that Abena and Tituba were of African descent, rather than Indian). The book also says that Abena (as well as two male slaves bought with her) were Ashantis. There is a fair deal of evidence in the first chapter alone as to Tituba's origins, and not one mention of her being even remotely "Indian."
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| Magistrates | William Stoughton · John Hathorne · Jonathan Corwin · Samuel Sewall · Bartholomew Gendey · Thomas Danforth · Nathaniel Saltonstall |
| Clergy | Samuel Parris · Cotton Mather · Increase Mather · Nicholas Noyes · John Hale · Deodat Lawson · Samuel Willard |
| Politicians & Public Figures | William Phips · Thomas Brattle · Robert Calef |
| Accusers | Elizabeth Hubbard · Mercy Lewis · Betty Parris · Ann Putnam, Jr. · Susannah Sheldon · Mary Walcott Abigail Williams · Sarah Bibber |
| Accused | John Alden · Edward Bishop · Sarah Bishop · Mary Black · Mary Bradbury · Sarah Cloyce · Rebecca Eames · Mary English · Phillip English · Abigail Faulkner · Dorcas Good · William Hobbs · Mary Lacy · Sarah Morey · Benjamin Proctor · Elizabeth Proctor · Sarah Proctor · William Proctor |
| Confessed and Accused Others | Tituba · Abigail Hobbs · Deliverance Hobbs · Margaret Jacobs · Mary Warren · Ann Foster · Mary Lacey Jr. · Mary Lacey Sr. · Sarah Churchwell |
| Executed | Bridget Bishop · George Burroughs · Martha Carrier · Martha Corey · Mary Eastey · Sarah Good · Elizabeth Howe · George Jacobs, Sr. · Susannah Martin · Rebecca Nurse · Alice Parker · Mary Parker · John Proctor · Ann Pudeator · Wilmot Redd · Margaret Scott · Samuel Wardwell · Sarah Wildes · John Willard |
| Died in Prison | Lydia Dustin · Ann Foster · Sarah Osborn · Roger Toothaker |
| Pressed to Death | Giles Corey |
